Nintendo Reportedly Planning to Increase Switch Production - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 January 2023 / 5,507 Views
Nintendo is reportedly planning to increase the production of the Nintendo Switch to meet demand, according to Bloomberg.
Nintendo in November 2022 announced it had lowered its forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, from 21.0 million units for the Nintendo Switch down to 19 million.
The report says that with continued strong consumer demand and shortages being less of an issue has encouraged Nintendo to increase production for its next fiscal year, which starts on April 1, 2023.
The Nintendo Switch has sold over an estimated 120 million units worldwide, according to the latest VGChartz estimates. The Switch was the best-selling console in the US, Europe, and Japan in 2022.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Seems they're not ready to do a Switch 2. Eh, I don't mind.
Believe it or not, this situation has happened before but much more extremely with the Game Boy. The Game Boy Color racked up Game Boy sales so much it peaked in its 10th year.
Well they are still selling like hotcakes so iz a no brainer
Another 20+ million year in 2023, I wonder how far the Switch will sell off 170 Million units assuming this is true and the Switch successor releases in mid - late 2025.
I remember Someone joked it will sell 200 millions. If Nintendo is really increasing production is not so funny now.
200 million still seems pretty unlikely however I wouldn’t mind seeing a Switch vs. PS3 + X360 comparison or Switch vs. PS4 + XOne comparison as they both sold about 170 Million which seems possible but still fairly unlikely.
it just sold 4 million less in 2022 than in 2021, you think it will sell more in 2023?
Assuming this report is true, yes. There is definitely still a market for the Switch to compete in and if accompanied by a new model and / or a price cut, the demand will be there for the Switch to sell over 20 million units.
This report is not true. It never made any sense. They had a 20 percent drop last year in sales. Why would they plan for it to go up?
Nintendo Prime
@NintyPrime
All they said wasn't that they will make more overall switches next fiscal year, but that they are starting the fiscal year making a lot - did we forget Tears of the Kingdom drops in May? They are just prepping for high demand early. I bet their yearly forecast is below current.
obviously people are weirdly misquoting the original Japanese author, weird that the entire NINTENDO internet starts repeating the same nonsense at the same time, got to get those clicks
sorry I don't know why vgchartz is messing up my formatting, I guess the copy paste did it. outside of pokemon when has a console ever increased against after collapsing? never
Zelda demand
Yep, however I don’t think a new Zelda themed Switch will bring many new buyers as Breath of the Wild is already on the Switch and considering its massive success I doubt it’s equal will bring many new fans.
I will probably be one of them, I had a Wii U to play the first one, no other game attracts me on the Switch. With the sequel I may not resit anymore and buy a Switch
Where the Fuck does a Switch with a game and an extra controller cost over $500?
And who are you to tell people how they should spend their money and when they should buy what console? If he wants to play TotK day one he needs a Switch. And you're trying to shit on him and tell him to wait god knows how long until the Switch 2 releases. People like you are a taint on society.
If you buy a Switch, you have basically 2 controllers included. They are called Joy-Cons. :D The Mario Kart bundle was available for 299 $.
Do you like to lie? The Switch with one game is more expensive than a PS5 bundle? Quit trolling! A Switch OLED is $350 and TotK is $60.
The PS5 GoW Ragnarök bundle is $560 in Amazon US right now.
Are you capable of doing simple math, troll?
Nobody needs to buy two controllers with the Switch.
You can't go to bestbuy and check it properly? PS5 digital plus Ragnarok is $460. Plus a second controller is $530. Switch OLED plus 2 controller and a game is $350 + $70 + $70 + $60. $550. This is basic accounting. It costs $20 more to buy a Switch, two controllers, and a game, than the PS5 Digital.
This reminds me of back in the Wii days when people would try to say Wii costs so much because the controllers cost $60 instead of $50 lol, like okay $30 extra to four controllers, for a system that's like $250 less haha.
Looking at best buy, digital only system bundle with GoW:R comes with one controller and is $460. That's the cheaper system, so we could compare that to handheld only Lite which would be $260 for the same thing.
Or $560 for the bundle of disc-version of the system. Compare that to either Switch hybrid and a game and you get either $360 or $410, both much cheaper than $560.
Also Switch 2 could easily be two years away, maybe more. Why would someone wait so long to play a game coming out in 4 months that they want to get?
No, you can't compare the PS5 digital against the Lite, you compare it against the Switch digital. Yikes. Arbitrary comparisons, why are you doing it? $530 for the PS5 + 2 controllers and a game to play together. $550 for the Switch OLED version. That's the value.
This pretty much confirms what we suspected: Switch 2 won't come out until 2024 or later.
That means Switch became best console ever
It seems probable depending on how demand is in 2023.
Honestly I just hope we see ARMS 2 this year. Absolutely loved the first game, quirks and all. The characters are outstanding.
2d Mario incoming!!
Price drop?
They dan easily sell the Switch to Q1 2026, before they release a successor. They only have to release Zelda this year and a new Pokémon next year an d the Switch will sell 10 million+ units both years.
With the new Pokémon out in the wild, Zelda coming out in the spring, and several evergreens still selling very strong, it might be a good move.
Also:
Bundle the OLED model with Swith Sports and do some peppy ads for the summer.
Sure to win over some of the fringe audience.
Yeah, this thing is beating the PS2 easy. Going from the colossal failure that was the Wii U, to the best selling gaming device of all time is insane. Nintendo killed it with the Switch not gonna lie.
actually not, the DS was the best selling of all time, the 3DS sold well, the Switch is the successor to the DS and its success as a portable isn't surprising
if you mistakenly take the Switch as a successor to the Wii U then you get confused
there is no alternative for DS and 3DS fans except for the Switch, meanwhile nobody had to buy the Wii U, they had the 3DS at that time
The Switch sales are about 3DS + Wii U sales combined, as expected.
Price cut incoming?
King Switch coming for 200 million , poor Sony and Microsoft
I find it hard to see how they can keep up that much momentum, barring unforeseen circumstances.
It's called Pokémon and Mario Kart 9, those will keep the momentum going. Also massive price cuts can do wonders.
If Nintendo just really wanted to stick with this gen for a long time and hit 200M they could maybe do it. Yeah they could just keep cutting the price overtime, maybe eventually have like a $120/$170/$200 price structure as their chipset becomes like a decade old. They could also make another model. Not that they are going to do it. But maybe they keep it going to holiday 2025 and end up selling 170M.
Bloomberg missed some times on these reports but i do remember they reported Switch could go to 30 millions during 2020. So that is an interesting claim. As other said, that would most likely mean price cut. It will happen eventually since the competition can now produce more and Switch’s edge on availability won’t be the main factor anymore. Also, if they plan to release a new console in a year or two, Switch will need to reduce in pricing cause they can’t sell the successor at almost the same price as the OLED and it won’t be 550$.
I agree, I would be very shocked if a price cut did not occur sometime this year.
A price cut has already occurred, due to inflation. The $300 that you pay for a Switch today is worth far less than the $300 that I paid for my Switch 5 years ago. It's probably equivalent to about $200 in 2017 value.
I got mine in 2019, and yes inflation has virtually acted as a price cut but I also think Nintendo may lower the prices themselves so the OLED model is not at a similar price to the Xbox Series S.
There l could be that possibility where Nintendo never drops the price of the Switch even once the successor comes out since Nintendo would rather prioritize profit over sales numbers.
Nintendo isn't new to this practice either since they did it with the wii u, after having that first price cut in Aug 2013 from $350 to $300, the Wii U for the rest of its lifespan never received another official price cut by Nintendo even after the Switch released despite the low sales since Nintendo wanted to prioritize profit over sales. Sony would do a similar thing with the PS4 where Sony never officially dropped the price of the PS4 below 300$ despite the PS5 releasing and being only 100$ more. It wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo took that approach with the Switch as well especially since so many people are still willing to pay 300-350 for the Switch.
Also, I dont think Nintendo would raise production that much before they implement a price cut, since they won't truly know how the demand will increase after the price cut to avoid overstocking.
Yeah exactly. Either Nintendo drops the price of the Switch before the successor comes out, or they basically just halt Switch production (except for maybe the Lite) just before the successor launches. Cuz I'd be the successor will probably be like $350 and they aren't gonna be trying to sell last-gen at the same price as next-gen.
Before this news I woulda said Nintendo won't do any price cuts and will just stop producing at least the two hybrid models just before Switch 2 launch. But now, with them wanting to actually increase production, that definitely speaks to a price cut this year. And with chips available cost of production should be heading back down so a price cut becomes doable.
Hell maybe we see $170/$250/$300 this year, then they push the Switch 2 off until holiday 2025 and we see another drop to $150/$220/$260 in 2025 so they can keep selling Switch when Switch 2 comes out at say $350 with full backward compatibility.
Feel like a pricecut is incoming, only way I see it going up.
I agree, that also opens the door for a new revision model seeing how Nintendo is trying to extend the lifecycle of the console.
This is what the article actually says (I will quote a bit, I am a member).
"Nintendo has told suppliers and assembly partners it intends to churn out more Switch units in the fiscal year starting April, but has not yet communicated a precise target, the people said. It may revise down its plans later in the year if demand underwhelms. Analyst expectations are for sales to diminish, however Nintendo’s plan suggests it sees sustained demand for at least another year. The console, whose price starts at $199.99, has been hampered more by supply issues than any demand slump, Nintendo executives have said.
(which is totally false, there have been no shortages of Switches on the shelf)
“Sales in the recent holiday season were not that strong even with improved supply,” said Kenji Fukuyama, an analyst at UBS Securities. “People will soon start speculating about next-generation hardware and are likely to refrain from buying the old system. A slowdown in Switch sales momentum is unavoidable.”
aaa
Somehow an article saying "has not yet communicated a precise target" and "a slowdown in Switch sales is unavoidable" is getting reported the opposite way based on unfounded speculation of the Bloomberg writer misquoting the original sources. "Make more" in this context just means "to keep making them, for sale". Not to make more than last year.
Ugh, that means our chances of seeing Switch 2 released in 2024 are down quite alot. Another year with a system so weak most games are now sub 30 fps, sigh.
I have no problem with no new console coming as long as Nintendo can be on top of it with the performance (at least 720p 30fps).
30fps is garbage, why don't you want the Nintendo family to grow to include people that played all their games at 60fps like the Gamecube 20 years ago?
I know it’s frustrating not to get 3rd party support at the quality the consumer demands, but if 2025 is true, maybe the 2nd Switch will get better hardware than say the 2024 Switch 2. I know this isn’t the best answer or possibly the correct info. At least hope for a revision to address your concerns on the fps or even quality updates if that will address that issue?
There is also a higher chance that a 4K Switch could be put back into development.
Bad game performance is mostly down to lazy Devs. Unless a game is really pushing the limits, just compare it to other AAA Switch titles.
Even back in NES days we had slowdown…. ….and it was poorly optimized code then too!
A lot of games run like crap on PC, PS5, and Series X as well, until they're patched rather heavily.
Conversely, a lot of the popular games being released are lower-tier games that simply don't benefit from things like ray-tracing. Not every game is on the tier of God of War: Ragnarok.
Even GOW Ragnarok is basically a heavily optimised PS4 game ported to PS5. Horizon graphically is a lot more impressive than GOW Ragnarok.
Developer's need to optimize better. Pokemon scarlett is perfect example of this
